New Niners stadium creating some Bay Area friction

It was all confetti and shovels when the 49ers and officials in Santa Clara broke ground on a new NFL stadium. Now, some folks in Santa Clara are feeling a bit betrayed.

As Mike Rosenberg of the San Jose Mercury News explains it, the team’s deal to get out of its Candlestick Park lease has resulted in some concessions with which the team’s new hometown isn’t all that comfortable.

For example, the 49ers and San Francisco have agreed that the team and the city will lead the effort to lure a Super Bowl (preferably the 50th one) to the new venue, leaving Santa Clara out in the cold.

“Part of the pitch for doing the stadium was the tremendous revenue that would be generated by a Super Bowl, Santa Clara Councilwoman Jamie McLeod, who opposes the stadium, told Rosenberg. “My assumption is if it’s an exclusive partnership between the city of San Francisco and the team to bring the Super Bowl in, then the city of San Francisco will receive most of the benefits.”

Actually, she’s probably missing the point. Hosting a Super Bowl typically entails the involvement of multiple cities, in order to ensure that sufficient facilities, like hotel and media space, will be available. Having San Francisco lead the charge is no less reasonable than having the team keep “San Francisco” in its name. If, in the end, having San Francisco front the effort makes the effort more likely to succeed, it makes plenty of sense to do it that way.

Perhaps more legitimately troubling is the team’s promise to give 500 game-day jobs to Candlestick Park employs, which eats into 19 percent of the work force at the new stadium.

That said, Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews isn’t complaining. “I have no doubt that all of our hotels will be filled,” Matthews told Rosenberg. “There will be parties and events set up all around Silicon Valley, and it will be the place to be during the Super Bowl.”

Matthews also isn’t concerned about the loss of some game-day jobs. “This project is too big for any one city to expect to retain all the jobs within it. It’s going to be a regional facility.”

The bottom line for Santa Clara is that the deal was necessary in order to allow the 49ers to get out of their lease one year early. Still, the fact that the 49ers didn’t tell Santa Clara about the possible deal until after it was done will understandably create some concern — and it will give some raw meat to those who didn’t want the stadium to be built there in the first place.

I know people don’t want to hear it because of “History” but a lot of places are going to be facing this stadium thing soon.. Green Bay, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans.. This list goes on and on of out of date stadiums.. Sure I know they’ve been renovated to stay up to date.. But the fact of the matter is.. If they tore down Yankees stadium despite the “History” there.. They will tear down ANY stadium despite history.. And I know the NFL and MLB are two different animals.. But the idea of staying competitive and up to date with the rest of your league is not..

I know people don’t want to hear it because of “History” but a lot of places are going to be facing this stadium thing soon.. Green Bay, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans.. This list goes on and on of out of date stadiums.. Sure I know they’ve been renovated to stay up to date.. But the fact of the matter is.. If they tore down Yankees stadium despite the “History” there.. They will tear down ANY stadium despite history.. And I know the NFL and MLB are two different animals.. But the idea of staying competitive and up to date with the rest of your league is not..
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Both Lambeau Field and Soldier Field have been renovated recently, they aren’t going anywhere.

A part of me feels just a tad sad when highly thought of, and supposedly reasonably intelligent people put their political foot in their mouths. Case in point, all this pointless and after the fact crying by a handful of weenies in Santa Clara government. You lost. The majority won. Get over it. And get on with it.

There’s not much to do in Santa Clara, do they want economic growth or don’t they?

And to think anybody in the rest of the country knows where Santa Clara is, or that it exists, over San Francisco, is assinine. More people know of San Francisco than they do Sacramento the Capitol of California. If it was the Sacramento 49ers and the new stadium was being built in San Francisco, you can be sure San Francisco would be the city luring a Super Bowl for the Sacramento 49ers. Get it? Good. Some politicians never know when to stop trying to only keep their office.

Typical politician doesn’t have a grasp of the specifics yet glad to go off in the media to get her name out there. The stadium is in Santa Clara where the game will be played and you don’t think your city is going to get enough benefit? Where do we find these people?

cincinnasti
May 12, 2012, 11:59 AM MDT
Both Lambeau Field and Soldier Field have been renovated recently, they aren’t going anywhere.

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Keep telling yourself that bud… It’s just a matter of time… Renovations are only band aids…
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Idk about soldier field, but lambeau will not be going anywhere. You brought up a good point about Yankees stadium, but what about Fenway and wrigley? They’ve been around longer than most of us reading this, and have gone through several renovations.

Both Lambeau Field and Soldier Field have been renovated recently, they aren’t going anywhere.

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Keep telling yourself that bud… It’s just a matter of time… Renovations are only band aids…
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So right about Band-Aids. We tried the renovation angle in Minn. but the Vikings wanted a new venue.
I get the reasoning: Renovations are truly just Band-Aids. For Green Bay and Chicago, it’s only a matter of time before the “we need a new stadium” thing starts again. Unfortunately, no team in the NFL is immune to this unless their stadium was built in the post-big money era of the NFL -(2004 thru present).
That leaves the door open for almost half of the NFL franchises to experience some sort of big money political fight over the next 10 years.

cincinnasti says:
May 12, 2012 1:03 PM
I know people don’t want to hear it because of “History” but a lot of places are going to be facing this stadium thing soon.. Green Bay, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans.. This list goes on and on of out of date stadiums.. Sure I know they’ve been renovated to stay up to date.. But the fact of the matter is.. If they tore down Yankees stadium despite the “History” there.. They will tear down ANY stadium despite history.. And I know the NFL and MLB are two different animals.. But the idea of staying competitive and up to date with the rest of your league is not.

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Ummm, just so you know, Soldier field was gutted and the only thing that’s left from the original stadium is the columns on the outer part. Everything else is new. Learn to research before posting.

Thats funny Santa Clara getting the 50th superbowl… There is no way that stadium gets it and may never get it. When the suberbowl fails in New York because of the weather the NFL will go back to domes and mild weather places. The weather sucks that time of year in Santa Clara!

@rickyck45 cannot wait for a foul weather SB. Only people who deep down hate football want “perfect” weather for the SB. The 2006 game in Miasma was probably the best SB in recent memory because the weather was lousy. In the before times the NFL had championship games at home fields. Last one to do it was the Browns in ’64. Now a SB in a really snowy city like Cleveland or Buffalo or GB would be awesome. Finally here is to Minnesota getting a stadium not a dome.

You guys are crazy if you think Green Bay and Chicago are just band-aid’s for their renovated stadiums. Usually, if public money is used (most of the time they are), teams are then forced to sign a long term lease at their “band-aided” stadium.

For instance everybody thinks Jacksonville is the next team to relocate after St. Louis. The problem is, Jacksonville is currently tied in a lease until 2029. The only way out of that lease is if, the Jaguars franchise loses money three consecutitive years OR prove to a local (that means Jacksonville) judge that the city has failed to maintain their stadium. The chances that ANY NFL will lose money with their massive TV contract and naming rights are remote for just one year, let alone 3 in a row.

Dolphins stadium in Miami is privately owned by Steven Ross, the owner of the Dolphins. He may try to upgrade it but the Dolphins will not leave it for a new stadium. Quite frankly, the hotels and restaurants in south Florida are full at that time of the year anyway, most people in south Florida could care less about a superbowl in Miami, so there will be no government money to upgrade it.

gregerss says:
May 12, 2012 2:25 PM
cincinnasti says:
May 12, 2012 1:03 PM
I know people don’t want to hear it because of “History” but a lot of places are going to be facing this stadium thing soon.. Green Bay, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans.. This list goes on and on of out of date stadiums.. Sure I know they’ve been renovated to stay up to date.. But the fact of the matter is.. If they tore down Yankees stadium despite the “History” there.. They will tear down ANY stadium despite history.. And I know the NFL and MLB are two different animals.. But the idea of staying competitive and up to date with the rest of your league is not.

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Ummm, just so you know, Soldier field was gutted and the only thing that’s left from the original stadium is the columns on the outer part. Everything else is new. Learn to research before posting.
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Did they move the stadium from the original venue, brainiac?

No. So what if the columns were the only thing left? The main point is its ostensibly in the same place as the other great games played at Soldier Field were.

You are talking about Santa Clara. Not San Jose, Oakland, or San Francisco. But Santa Clara! You should have made them agree to change the name to Santa Clara 49ers before letting the whiners build there. Sounds like the city was a little to eager to agree to get them there and didnt bargain correctly. Move along Santa Clara

gregerss says:
May 12, 2012 2:25 PM
cincinnasti says:
May 12, 2012 1:03 PM
I know people don’t want to hear it because of “History” but a lot of places are going to be facing this stadium thing soon.. Green Bay, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans.. This list goes on and on of out of date stadiums.. Sure I know they’ve been renovated to stay up to date.. But the fact of the matter is.. If they tore down Yankees stadium despite the “History” there.. They will tear down ANY stadium despite history.. And I know the NFL and MLB are two different animals.. But the idea of staying competitive and up to date with the rest of your league is not.

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Ummm, just so you know, Soldier field was gutted and the only thing that’s left from the original stadium is the columns on the outer part. Everything else is new. Learn to research before posting.

Soldier field is the smallest in the league. The new NY stadium seats 20,000 more. Renovating that dump was the biggest mistake Daley made. It will be ripped to the ground and replace with a stadium with a retractable roof for Super bowls and final fours. Gone in less than 10 years.

If Hairbow (and the 49er organization) will throw his quarterback Alex Smith under a bus, kissing manning’s butt across the country, I’m not surprised he’ll screw a whole city. The guy’s a back-punchong weasel.

It must be killing you that the Niners are getting a new stadium and you are stuck with the half empty stench bowl in Oaktown. What’s rougher that or the fact the Niners again dominate the Bay Area sports scene. I guess you are used to this with your A’s and Raiders both back page news and stuck on FM radio. Don’t be bitter Raider nation. Your .500 season has your season ticket base of 20,000 fired up!

There is no “friction”. Santa Clara has been the 49ers headquarters for well over 20 years and they just finally moved their stadium there(starting in 2014,when the new stadium is done ).
The team has been “traveling” up the freeway to all their “home” games at Candlestick Park for all those 20+ years. Now they can stay home for “home” games ! No need to even “travel” into the SF City limits ever again !!!

DEAD ON accurate. The name of SF is the one with the pull to bring in the SB…SC is the one with the site. When we get an SB, do you think there’ll be a Cisco SB party..a Google party..a Yahoo party (if they’re still in biz)..an Oracle party? Of course!
This area will be swimming in NFL and corporate cash. And we wouldn’t be having this discussion if all we had was the Stick, an aging rustcan that’s 20 years past the sell date!

The whole idea of “out-of-date” sports stadiums is ludicrous. Unless the facility is actually a hazard then who cares? It’s a stadium, not a cell phone. The trend of building these ridiculous pleasure-palaces to host 10-12 football games a year is so beyond insane it’s amazing. They bring nothing to anyone aside from money to whoever owns the franchise and that’s all. A 24 year old stadium (like in Miami) being branded as “old and decrepit” is completely laughable, there are better things for cities and states to spend their money on.

Thats funny Santa Clara getting the 50th superbowl… There is no way that stadium gets it and may never get it. When the suberbowl fails in New York because of the weather the NFL will go back to domes and mild weather places. The weather sucks that time of year in Santa Clara!

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Weather in Santa Clara is actually pretty nice that time of year. It’s usually 10 degrees warmer than SF. And it isn’t too windy there like it is at Candlestick point.

I know there’s still a lot of back-slapping going on about moving the SF franchise halfway to LA, but really?

If you want to see a MLB baseball game in SF, you walk to the waterside downtown stadium which takes full advantage of the unique natural environment, and as a result is widely considered one of the signature stadiums in the league.

If you want to see a NFL football game in SF (in a few years) you get in the car and drive. For an hour.

I guess that’s why they’re called the SAN FRANCISCO 49ers. And it’s not like they haven’t played in their home city since its inception. The HQ and practice field may have been moved to Santa Clara 20 years ago but the Niners have called SF home for over 60.

Anyways, thanks for footing the bill on a stadium your city couldn’t afford but willingly let your tax payers fund.